Millions of people in the U.S. live with a medical device implanted in their bodies. Devices like surgical mesh, heart defibrillator or artificial joints. While one would naturally think that these devices have been tested for safety and effectiveness, such is rarely the case for manufacturers of high-risk devices and implants do nothing more than pay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a user fee of about $4,000 and file some paperwork to be able to start selling their products. With no actual safety testing of the medical device, these often become the cause of harm than remedy to unsuspecting patients.

The Bard G2 IVC Filter is one example of a defective medical device. This cage-like wire device is implanted into a patient’s inferior vena cava, or the vein between the heart and lungs, for the purpose of catching blood clots before these enter the lungs and cause pulmonary embolism.

Created by C.R. Bard and approved by FDA in 2005, the G2 IVC Filter System was marketed as having increased migration resistance, improved centering and enhanced fracture resistance compared to the Bard Recovery IVC Filter system, which registered a high number of fractures and other problems and which it was meant to replace. Unfortunately, even the G2 IVC Filter was linked to a high rate of fractures and migrations that could cause life-threatening complications or severe internal injury in patients.

Despite awareness of the problems associated with their IVC filters, C.R. Bard allowed the Bard G2 filter to continue to be implanted into thousands of individuals – a clear show of the manufacturer’s desire for profits over consumer safety.

Another medical device, the safety and effectivity of which has been questioned, is the power morcellator, a surgical device used in laparoscopic surgeries, such as hysterectomy ( the surgical procedure that removes the uterus) and myomectomy, or the removal of uterine fibroids, more commonly known as myoma.

The use of a morcellator during laparoscopic surgeries was discovered to cause the spreading of the cancerous tissue, uterine sarcoma. The risk this device put women’s lives in made the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issue a safety alert on April 17, 2014, to discourage the further use of morcellators in laparoscopic surgeries. Many law firms, such as that of Williams Kherkher, encourages women who have received a power morcellator treatment to find out if they have been affected with the cancerous effects of the device and, if so, to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer for the compensation they may be legally entitled to receive.